Businessman joins Nat contest

Whangarei Paper Plus owner Adam Isa is seeking the Whangarei National Party nomination to replace Phil Heatley as the party's candidate in this year's general election.Photo/File

The race to replace Phil Heatley as the National Party's Whangarei candidate in this year's general election is getting crowded with businessman Adam Isa throwing his hat into the ring.

Mr Isa, who owns Whangarei's Paper Plus store and is regional manager for Paper Plus and Visique Optometrists, said he believed he had the skills and business and economic acumen to represent the party and to do the best for the electorate. Mr Heatley is leaving politics at the next election after 15 years as Whangarei MP.

Mr Isa knows it won't be plain sailing getting the party's nomination, with National list MP Paul Foster-Bell, and Whangarei GP Shane Reti also seeking the nomination.

But Mr Isa said he was confident his education and experience would see him chosen as the man to lead the party into the election.

Raised in Auckland, he attended Auckland Grammar School. At Auckland University, he earned a Bachelor of Commerce degree, majoring in international trade and international business, and a Master's of International Business.

Mr Isa, who has been a member of the Whangarei National Party for 18 months, said he is not a career politician, but a businessman who believes he can make a difference for the district and wider region.

"My qualifications are in strategic management and international trade and since we moved up from Auckland I have seen the untapped potential and opportunities up here. We need somebody representing this community in Parliament to take advantage of those opportunities, rather than them bypassing Whangarei and going elsewhere" Mr Isa said.

"I would lean towards the economic development area and trade and would focus on developing and growing Whangarei and the wider Northland region."

He said Whangarei was a beautiful district that wasn't reaching its potential and he wanted to contribute to making the lifestyle even better.

"I say people exist in Auckland, but they live in Whangarei and I never really had the concept of what living was and what a life was until we moved up here."

Married to Kim the couple bought the Whangarei Paper Plus branch in 2007. They have two children: Annabelle, 2, and Samuel, 8 weeks.

Nominations to replace Mr Heatley close on Friday with around 60 delegates voted from the wider party membership in Whangarei making the final decision. The successful candidate is to be named on March 6.